Pentatonix Tracks The ‘Evolution of Michael Jackson’ In One Epic Mash-Up: VIDEO

Pentatonix, the Grammy-award winning group known for their aca-awesome covers of pop hits, are back with their latest YouTube mashup, “Evolution of Michael Jackson.”

Previously we told you about their “Evolution of Beyoncé” that charted Queen Bey’s musical journey from a child of destiny to today. Pentatonix has now done the same for the King of Pop, Michael Jackson and his impressive catalog of songs. The co-ed a capella singers cover everything from Michael’s Jackson 5 hits to his breakouts from the 80s including Thriller all the way to 1995’s “You Are Not Alone.”

Watch the evolution for yourself, below:

The post Pentatonix Tracks The ‘Evolution of Michael Jackson’ In One Epic Mash-Up: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

Sean Mandell

Pentatonix Tracks The ‘Evolution of Michael Jackson’ In One Epic Mash-Up: VIDEO

Stonewall Inn Declared a NYC Landmark

The officials who determine which New York City buildings are historic declared the Stonewall Inn a landmark following a public hearing.

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Dawn Ennis

www.advocate.com/stonewall/2015/06/23/stonewall-inn-declared-nyc-landmark

Caroline 'Tula' Cossey, Who Became Playboy's First Transgender Model, Looks Back
Caroline “Tula” Cossey, who became the world’s first transgender model to pose for Playboy magazine in 1991, opens up in her first media interview in two decades for the publication.

In the 1970s, the British-born Cossey appeared in issues of Australian Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar before landing a role in the 1981 James Bond film, “For Your Eyes Only.” Shortly after the movie’s release, however, she was outed as transgender by the tabloid News of the World.

View a vintage shot from Cossey’s 1991 Playboy spread. Story continues below.

Although she opened up about her transition in interviews with Howard Stern and Arsenio Hall, Cossey, now 60, eventually walked away from the spotlight and now lives a relatively quiet life in Atlanta. “There’s a difference between being known as Tula the transsexual international model versus just a successful model,” she tells Playboy’s Shane Michael Singh in the July and August issue of the magazine. “It wasn’t the same. I felt like a circus act.”

Playboy officials say Cossey remains the only transgender model to receive a full spread in the magazine’s pages. Another trans model, Ines Rau, appeared in the magazine’s May 2014 issue, but hers was not a complete pictorial.

Cossey described her spread, photos of which are reprinted in the new issue alongside the interview, as a positive experience.

“Playboy’s readership is mostly male and heterosexual, so it allowed me to get out there and prove that people like myself can be sexy and attractive. That’s what I aimed to do at that point,” she said of her pictorial, which appeared in Playboy’s September 1991 issue.

The media interest that followed her spread, she said, “gave people the chance to get to know me, to feel the situation and hopefully gain empathy and understanding. That was my goal, and Playboy was a great platform for that.”

Despite the strides that the transgender community has made over the years, Cossey said she doesn’t know “if I’ll ever stop feeling like a second-class citizen. It’s embedded and instilled from birth. You grow up, you don’t fit in, you don’t belong, you’re bullied. That doesn’t go away in five minutes. I don’t think it ever goes away.”

Singh’s interview with Cossey was conducted before before Caitlyn Jenner made her now-iconic debut on the cover of Vanity Fair earlier this month. The model was pretty frank in her assessment, offering views some may deem controversial.

Read the full Playboy interview with Cossey here.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/23/tula-transgender-playboy-model-_n_7638670.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

If Gays Can Legally Marry, Why Can’t This Member Of Parliament Wed His Children?

There are questions. If gay people are allowed to get married, why can’t you marry your cat? Why can’t you marry Jupiter? Your old Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom DVD? The pi formula? If gays can get married, what’s to stop alpacas from marrying llamas?

Fortunately, the questions Australian MP Dennis Jensen posed to Parliament on Monday were far more even-keeled than those we’ve listed above. No, Jensen merely wondered why he couldn’t marry his entire family.

“I love my siblings, I love my children, I love my parents,” he said. “But does that mean I should marry them…?”

Related: Rand Paul Thinks You Can Now Marry Animals

Using the same logic as that obnoxious kid in first grade — “If you love chocolate, why don’t you marry it?” — Jensen asked all the tough questions and pulled no punches: “Why not allow incestuous marriage if one or both parties agree to be sterilized? How about the love of, say, two sisters who have lived together for most of their lives? Should that be called marriage?”

Graciously, he made clear that he thinks same-sex couples should be able to formalize their relationship in some vague and abstract way… Just so long as it wasn’t, like, marriage.

Not surprisingly, his baiting questions earned Jensen a number of negative comments online, prompting him to tweet, “Amazing how many who preach tolerance are themselves unbelievably intolerant!”

Which begs the question: If gays can get married, what’s to stop Dennis Jensen from marrying someone who preaches tolerance but are themselves intolerant? Well, smartypants…?

h/t: Gay Star News

Derek de Koff

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/yP3HZYvE3qc/if-gays-can-legally-marry-why-cant-this-member-of-parliament-wed-his-children-20150623

Stonewall Inn Voted a NYC Landmark: VIDEO

New York City’s famed Stonewall Inn was today voted an historic landmark by New York City’s landmarks commission.

The Greenwich Village bar is today considered to be the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement.

The AP reports:

The unanimous vote Tuesday marks the first time a site has been designated as a landmark in the city because of its significance to LGBT history.

Patrons fought back against a police raid on the Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969. The uprising is commemorated in gay pride events every year in New York and around the world.

Andrew Berman, executive director for the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, spoke about the significance of Stonewall Inn in the trajectory of LGBT history:

“To me, the Stonewall Inn represents what Selma represents to the civil rights movement and what Seneca Falls represents to the women’s rights movement,” New York City Public Advocate Letitia James said before the commission. “It must be protected from rapacious developers who would destroy the history and what this place represents.”

Watch a video showing the unanimous vote, below:

Landmark Designation for @StonewallInnNYC @nyclandmarks vote unanimous @gaycivilrights pic.twitter.com/EfCXy7fmYT

— Michael Herzenberg (@MHerzenberg) June 23, 2015

[h/t TNCRM]

The post Stonewall Inn Voted a NYC Landmark: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad.

Sean Mandell

Stonewall Inn Voted a NYC Landmark: VIDEO

Point Foundation Announces 2015 Scholars
Point Foundation empowers promising LGBTQ students to achieve their full academic and leadership potential – despite the obstacles often put before them – to make a significant impact on society.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/23/point-foundation-scholars_n_7645612.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

REVIEW: BEST WESTERN Willow Bank Hotel, Manchester

Sleek, stylish and perfectly located – with a portrait of Alan Turing in the dining room

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jamiet

www.gaystarnews.com/article/review-best-western-willow-bank-hotel-manchester230615

Maya Rudolph’s Brutal Spoof Of Rachel Dolezal Can’t Be Missed

Perhaps Rachel Dolezal’s decision to check every available box by coming out as bisexual was the last straw, for comic genius Maya Rudolph has finally given the world what it’s been waiting for: her spot-on impression of the controversial former NAACP president who introduced “transracial” into the lexicon. Not since Tina Fey skewered accomplished big game hunter former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has there been such intense anticipation.

Check out the skewering below.

Jeremy Kinser

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/er1yigcdjhs/maya-rudolphs-brutal-spoof-of-rachel-dolezal-cant-be-missed-20150623

Virginia Governor Orders Removal of Confederate Flag from License Plates

The Confederate Flag will no longer be an option on Virginia specialty license plates following an order this morning from Governor Terry McAuliffe, The Roanoke Times reports:

McAuliffe’s decision comes on the heels of efforts in South Carolina to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds following a racially motivated shooting that left nine dead in a Charleston church.

It also follows a Supreme Court decision last week that ruled states can censor messages on license plates.

“Although the battle flag is not flown here on Capital Square, it has been the subject of considerable controversy, and it divides many of our people” McAuliffe said in a statement. “Even its display on state-issued license tags is, in my view, unnecessarily divisive and hurtful to too many of our people.”

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2002 ruled that the Confederate Flag could appear on the plates after a court battle launched in 1999 by The Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Adds The Roanoke Times:

McAuliffe said today that the Attorney General’s Office will take steps to reverse the prior court ruling in Virginia and the Department of Transportation will develop a plan for replacing the existing plates as soon as possible.

Currently, nearly 1,600 Virginia automobiles carry the plates.

The post Virginia Governor Orders Removal of Confederate Flag from License Plates appeared first on Towleroad.

Andy Towle

Virginia Governor Orders Removal of Confederate Flag from License Plates

Larry Kramer Stars in New HBO Documentary

A new HBO documentary debuting June 29 focuses on the life and work of the one and only Larry Kramer, the firebrand at the center of HIV/AIDS activism.

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Bil Browning

www.advocate.com/politics/media/2015/06/23/larry-kramer-stars-new-hbo-documentary